Start

Today I have decided to start a blog about converting a Britains Deere 200D 1:16 digger into a RC model. I've played around with the idea for at least a year, but after finding this blog about a Bruder RC Catapillar conversion by Jaegermeister(In Dutch), I decided it was time to make a start at doing my own. A lot of my conversion will be based on the conversion Jaegermeister has already done, so I do not and can not take credit for everything I'm about to do. I'm starting with a different base model, but I hope to make a model that's as least as good as Jaegermeisters.

Taken apart

This evening I made a start with taking the model apart. This went surprisingly well. I have converted a Bruder tractor into a RC model, and I have to say that the Bruder models are put together really well, better then the Britain one. I have already seen a potential problem, the mast is really narrow at the end, and I'm worried  I'm not going to be able to fit a servo in there. Below is a photo of the model taken apart.

 A photo of the model taken apart.

Access door


Now that I have taken everything apart, I was looking at the upper deck and decided to make an access door. The engine cover looks like the logical choose, using a sharp knife I cut repeatedly along the edge of the engine compartment. The corners were a little harder, but I have seen that other people use sewing yarn to cut small areas of plastic, to my surprise it works well. It can be a little tricky to keep a constant tension. In this photo you can see how this turned out.


Parts arrived

When I arrived home today there was a package waiting for me, with some hardware parts. The geared wheel, axel joints, universal joint with M6 inserts. The wood drill bit I got a local hardware store.